"We are targeting critical military capabilities that could be used to attack civilians, including command and control centers that could be used to plan and organize such attacks," spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said. "We are simply not targeting individuals."

Townsend's source points out that Gadhafi commands Libya's military and is at the center of its command and control.

Gadhafi, as several diplomats noted at a Libya contact group meeting in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, is willing to watch his army get bombed into the dirt rather than quit.

Indeed, just this week Gadhafi said in a radio address he would die rather than step down.

What seems to up for debate at NATO is, with limited resources, what should it bomb first? Should NATO go after Gadhafi's army around rebel strongholds like Misrata, which won't do anything to remove the dictator?

Or should NATO relentlessly pursue the man himself, because the longer he is around the longer the war drags out and the bigger the final cost of picking up the pieces?

He warned NATO chiefs the alliance's European partners are relying too heavily on the United States.

"The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country -- yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference," he said.

The pointed language highlights the urgency of pursuing an end game -- getting Gadhafi and not his troops.